1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a recording medium.
2. Description of the Related Art
In order to obtain a recording medium having a high ink-absorbing property, a recording medium including a support and two ink-receiving layers provided on the support is known. Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2008-265110 discloses such a recording medium including a support and two ink-receiving layers provided on the support. Specifically, in the ink-receiving layer disposed closer to the support, the content of a binder is 7% by mass or more and 12% by mass or less relative to the content of hydrated alumina serving as inorganic particles. On the other hand, in the other ink-receiving layer disposed further away from the support, the content of a binder is 4% by mass or more and 6% by mass or less relative to the content of hydrated alumina.
Furthermore, in order to obtain a recording medium having high scratch resistance, incorporation of fine particles in an outermost surface layer of a recording medium has been studied. Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2003-341225 describes that scratch resistance of a recording medium is improved by incorporating inorganic fine particles having a size of 1 to 10 μm in an outermost surface layer of the recording medium.
Recently, the demand for photo-books and photo-albums has been increasing. One of properties required for a recording medium used for a photo-book or a photo-album is a property that pages are easily flipped through with a finger, that is, a good page-flipping property. In addition, in the field of commercial printing, it is assumed that when a photo-book or a photo-album is produced, a recording medium is subjected to high-speed printing and high-speed conveyance. Accordingly, the properties required for the recording medium used for a photo-book or a photo-album further include a high ink-absorbing property that can realize high-speed printing and a property that scratches are not readily formed by a conveying roller on a surface of the recording medium when the recording medium is conveyed at a high speed, that is, a high conveyance scratch resistance.
However, according to studies conducted by the inventors of the present invention, the recording media described in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Nos. 2008-265110 and 2003-341225 have room for improvement in terms of these properties.